


Finding Hope Once More

by Merfilly



Series: A Rogue Change [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 03:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11751498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Obi-Wan and Ahsoka finally talk.





	Finding Hope Once More

Once Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were in a quiet room, alone, she looked at him with a wary tip to her head, her lekku blank even to his eyes. When had the padawan gotten so adept at hiding? Worse, how much had his actions forced this role upon her?

In failing Anakin, he knew he had failed the Order, the Republic, and so many others… yet seeing it in her, reading between the lines that she was a major player in this Rebellion, reinforced it in ways that hurt all over again.

"Skywalker?"

That one word on her lips, carrying skepticism and hope alike, made him focus on the present, not the past.

"Anakin's son," Obi-Wan managed to say around the pain for his lost padawan.

Ahsoka closed her eyes. She held her hand up to forestall his words, and let herself weigh the Force on that revelation. "There's more," she said, opening her eyes to meet his. "No lies, no evasions, no omissions, Obi-Wan. I am not a reckless padawan any longer, and this—" she gestured at all of the base, "is as much my legacy as it is Mon's, or Bail's, or any of the other many movers and shakers.

"I need all the deck on view this time."

Obi-Wan shook his head. "I have no intention of hiding anything, Ahsoka, as you… you will have to carry this forward. I have made far too many mistakes, too—"

"Stop. Right there." She indicated the chair at the table, and perched on said surface when he dropped into it, surprised at the brusque cut-off. "Every recruit I ever personally went after, had regrets or past mistakes. I operate on a clean pad technique. You come to the Rebellion, you fight for the Rebellion, you do what is needed for the Rebellion… and if your past drives you, so be it. But it doesn't, ever, need to be on display for any and all. 

"We all have stories. And yes, I can guess you're bridling at me because you feel completely responsible for **him**. Well, those events didn't happen in a vacuum, and guess who walked out of his life when he probably most needed someone? Given, you know, some of your own mistakes?" He flinched, as he recalled what had happened not long before they had driven Ahsoka out of the Order. "Don't go pitying yourself, taking on a martyr complex, or anything like that.

"I do intend to face Vader, and keep facing him, until I end it," Ahsoka told him. "I damn near had him on Malachor," and she did not let his gasp interrupt her, "and I was able to hold his focus and keep him at bay over Scarif, by using the bond. I am not afraid of hard measures, and will do what it takes."

Obi-Wan looked her over, measured her fierce determination (never lacking, he recalled, just not always directed back then), and realized she had too many points for him to rebut. So he went back to the honesty. "Organa's daughter… is Luke's twin."

Ahsoka went from the table to the other chair near her, barely managing to settle in it without sending it sideways in shock. She recalled a very small girl sneaking into her meetings with Bail. She remembered the last time she had tried to negotiate between Saw and Bail, each of them with a girl at their sides. Now, one of those was the Hero of the Rebellion for taking them to Scarif and proving they could win key battles. The other had gotten the plans, the fruit of that fight, safely back to the Rebellion.

"I can't feel the Force in her… wait, no. Master It'kla lives on Alderaan. He'd be able to inhibit her expression, teach her shielding similar to what I use," Ahsoka murmured, reasoning through it. She then shook her head. "Well, that needs to stop." She tipped her chin up. "How much training does the boy have? He felt… bright."

Obi-Wan sighed. "I took him to Anakin's family. A step-brother, and his wife, to raise the boy. The uncle did not allow me to have anything to do with him. So I have had to guard from afar."

Ahsoka nodded; she could mostly understand that, from her own travels, from the argument she had had with one ex-Jedi Shadow when she crossed his path. "I can work with it, though." She then glared at Obi-Wan. "I will not be teaching them the Jedi ways, and I don't care what you say. I found my own path, and know for a fact that the Order was strangling on its own strictures."

"I will not disagree," Obi-Wan assured her. "But now you see why you must survive, if they can find no other path than your suggestion?"

"Are you so eager to die? What you just told me changes everything!" Ahsoka continued to glare, but Obi-Wan could not see why. "No… you don't see." Ahsoka leaned across the table, reaching for his hands. "Vader… is not just that creature of Darkness. Oh, I'm certain he's gotten worse in the years since the Temple trapped me after our fight, but, for a moment, Anakin was able to reach out, to call to me and mean it! 

"How much stronger could that be with his children alive? He can't possibly know! And for all he may be stronger now, there's also the fact that he should be pretty ripe for breaking the hold his Master has on him. Anakin never coped with slavery… and Vader is nothing more than a mad anooba on a leash, at the Emperor's beck and call!"

"What is that you, and Padmé before she died, able to see in him that I swear was gone when I faced him last?!" Obi-Wan demanded, the words exploding out of him more harshly than anything else he'd said.

Ahsoka, holding his hands, actually smiled at that. "We see his best, Obi-Wan, where you ever and always only let yourself see the flaws, trying to beat them out of him with your Jedi teachings." At his attempt to protest, she squeezed his fingers. "You were his teacher. You meant to anneal him into the perfect picture of what he could be.

"We only ever saw him as a man reaching ever higher, and growing frustrated when it wasn't good enough for you, for us, or for the men."

"I knew he was better than so many," Obi-Wan protested, but there was a faint ring of truth to the words, to the sentiment. He had always pushed, and rarely supported, not in the way Anakin had needed.

"We move forward, from all of that. Teach the pair, find any others we can, and… I'll deal with Vader. One way or the other, I will see my master freed of the Dark that consumed him."

As she said it, Obi-Wan felt a weight lift, as he realized he was not alone, that the future held the possibility of change… and that meant holding hope again.

He just prayed she was right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the support.


End file.
